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Increased tolerance to annual ryegrass toxicity in sheep given a supplement of cobalt
Author(s) -
DAVIES SC,
WHITE CL,
WILLIAMS IH
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1995.tb03525.x
Subject(s) - cobalt , toxicity , zoology , body weight , medicine , agronomy , toxicology , biology , physiology , chemistry , inorganic chemistry
SUMMARY To determine whether oral cobalt supplements could modify the clinical onset of annual ryegrass toxicity, groups (n = 5) of sheep were dosed orally with 0, 4 or 16 mg cobalt/day. After 3 weeks on this treatment, toxic ryegrass seed was added to their feed to provide 0, 0.15 and 0.30 mg corynetoxins/kg body weight, daily. Sheep receiving cobalt ingested 30% more toxin than did unsupplemented sheep before clinical signs developed (P = 0.03). There was no significant difference between groups receiving 4 and 16 mg cobalt. The results showed that cobalt delayed, but did not prevent, the onset of clinical signs of annual ryegrass toxicity.